RACE REPORT: MINI Challenge Rd3 - Silverstone

Words and photos ©David Young photography

MINI Challenge   Silverstone GP
13^th – 14^th June

I am beginning to love Silverstone, both as a spectator and as a photographer. It takes a few trips to get to know the vantage points, that is those not too far away from the circuit and close enough to see the racing as well as take pictures.  The only issue I have is that the circuit is enormous.  Six laps in qualifying and 8 or 9 laps in each race!  The GP circuit is 3.66 miles long. So when the race starts you have about 2 minutes of twiddling your thumbs or time to move around without missing racing.

Henry Neal (Matt Neal’s son) along the National Pits straight

Saturday morning in June and what did the weather do?  It rained, and it rained and it rained.  A wet track does give reflections to play with and the spray means you can take the first car’s picture, the rest are just like a pea souper fog.  Predictably the cars stayed spaced out but a few had moments trying to test the limits.  Fortunately being a wide and long circuit there are lots of run offs!  I shall not bother you with great details, I just could not follow the session and take pictures as well.

Lawrence Davey in his “first 4 vans” Gen 3 F56 was quickest in his usual spectacular sideways style, followed by David Grady and Lee Pattison, all three are very experienced racers familiar with Silverstone. The JCWs were lead home by Erkka Lindstedt, Neil Newstead and Hamish Brandon all within half a second of each other. Cooper class had the usual Ricky Page in front followed by Nathan Harrison and Max Bladon.  Ricky being 3 seconds clear in his Sussex Road and Race run car.

Race No	Position	Gen 3	JCW	Cooper
Qualifying	1	Lawrence Davey	Errka Lindstedt	Ricky Page
	2	David Grady	Neil Newstead	Nathan Harrison
	3	Lee Pattison	Hamish Brandon	Max Blandon
Race 1	1	Lee Pattison	Neil Newstead	Ricky Page
	2	Lawrence Davey	Hamish Brandon	Nathan Harrison
	3	William Phillips	Errka Lindstedt	Max Blandon
Race 2	1	Ryan Rhode	Neil Newstead	Ricky Page
	2	Lawrence Davey	Hamish Brandon	Nathan Harrison
	3	Charlie Butler-Henderson	Kevin O'Connor	Mark Wakefield
Race 3	1	Lee Pattison	Neil Newstead	Nathan Harrison
	2	Lawrence Davey	Errka Lindstedt	Ricky Page
	3	Charlie Butler-Henderson	Kevin O'Connor	Max Blandon

Saturday Afternoon the rain was getting heavier, full set of waterproofs on and I still got wet through.  I had to do the starting grid, all the cars looked awesome on the grid.  36 MINI Challenge cars, 16 Gen3 F56s, 8 JCWs and 12 Coopers, what a sight! Galloping toward the first corner (Copse) in the pouring rain, spray everywhere, I could not see a thing after the first cars passed.  The camera and lens stayed dry though, that is another story!

Neal, Davey, Pole and Hammond diving into Luffield

Superb racing with William Phillips improving from 5th to 3rd, Lawrence Davey and Lee Pattison changing places a few times. Neil Newstead in the JCWs showed Hamish a clean pair of heels and led from the first bend until the flag with Errka close behind.  A podium on only his 3rd time out!  Ricky Page did his usual thing, pulling out an enormous lead only to nearly get overtaken in the dying minutes. Nathan Harrison and Max Blandon stayed with him until the flag.  Time to dry out!

Sunday morning and the sky is cloudy but should stay dry.  First race I decided to take a long walk around to Luffield corner, it was either there or Club corner (too far to walk).  My car was on display so I had to walk, (I need the exercise anyway). Great thing about both of these places is that you can cover a few angles and have great view of approaching cars, (a must have for race photography trackside).  Well a great race, it stayed dry, the sun came out and my big f2.8 300m lens misted up from yesterday’s soaking. Still I managed to get a few off before the mist became too problematical.  (I did have spare lenses but they were in the car!). 

 

Charlie Butler-Henderson congratulating Ryan Rhode on his win

Ryan Rode, a young man from South Africa, had his first win on UK soil - to say he was happy is an understatement. A well-deserved win keeping Lawrence Davey at bay with Charlie Butler-Henderson (yes, the famous one) just behind, all in Gen3 F56s.  JCWs were again led home by Neil Newstead in the Oakfield Motorsport car with Hamish Brandon in 2nd with Kevin O’Connor in third, showing his improvement at Brands was no fluke.  Coopers had Ricky page and Nathan Harrison at it again with Mark Wakefield joining in, Max Blandon had to put up with 4th.  I must say that the Coopers racing are a superb sight, really close stuff and lots of them (13 on Sunday.) 

Harry Vaulkhard leading Ryan Rhode,
Chris Smith and William Phillips into the Loop

The F56s all had all had a new gearbox design fitted for these rounds, so far it seems great. Quaife engineers all seemed content and went home on the Saturday. We just had one clutch failure with Rob Smith being side-lined in Race 2 whilst in 3rd place.

The final race was at stupid o’clock (16.10 to be exact). This time the sky had clouded over, rain was expected, but I am glad to say it did not arrive until after the last race.  Lawrence Davey was quick away and lead until lap 7 of 9, when both Lee Patterson and Charlie Butler-Henderson managed to get past. Lawrence managed to get back one place to finish second from Charlie, but what a race.  Neil Newstead was the star of the JCW race, from 6th on the grid he sped off into the lead and stayed there for 3 wins out of 3 - what a performance.

It just shows what great preparation and good driving can do.  Bill Sollis, his race engineer was a little bit overjoyed.  Neil’s car did not miss a beat all weekend. 2nd and 3rd went to Erkka and Kevin, these two chaps also were having a great weekend.  I really feel for Kevin, he has been around the MINI Challenge probably as long as I have, at last he has a competitive car and is getting the results he so justly deserves.

Henry Neal leading Mark Wakefield
and Simon Walton into the Loop

The Cooper Class was yet another close race, this time Nathan managed to get past Ricky on the 5th lap and stay there until the flag, Max Blandon stayed put in 3rd with Max Leaver and Mark Wakefield keeping him honest.  This was again the race to watch. 

What a weekend for the MINI Challenge.  Superb grids, 37 cars on the Sunday, superb racing, great people, great hospitality by Refined Concierge. Onward and upwards.  Brands MINI Festival followed by Oulton Park (my favourite) and then a break before Donington GP and Snetterton.  All details are at www.MINIChallenge .co.uk.

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